An implant of this type is disclosed in international application PCT/EP2011/069895. It allows the stabilization of the spinous processes of adjacent vertebral bodies, “adjacent” primarily being able to mean “directly adjacent” but, in the present case, not being limited to directly adjacent vertebral bodies. In the present case, “vertebral body” designates both the vertebra overall (“vertebra”) and also the vertebral body in the narrower sense (“corpus vertebrae”). Anatomical position and direction details, such as, for example, “lateral”, “cranial”, “caudal” or the like are, in the present case, to be understood as relating to the intended use of the implant, in which the contact elements abut laterally on the mutually remote sides of the spinous processes and may have a cranial-caudal orientation.
In the known implant, two clamping elements fixed to the first contact element extend through the intervertebral space and the second contact element, which comprises fixing elements and, by means of these, has a latching engagement with the clamping elements. This allows the contact elements to be clamped relative to one another, and by means of their abutment, allows the spinous processes to be stabilized relative to one another. For this purpose, the implant further comprises at least one spacer element positioned in the intermediate space and fixed by means of the contact elements. The spacer element, on the one hand, allows a checking of the spacing of the contact elements from one another and, on the other hand, can be supported on the spinous processes, for example cranially and/or caudally.
The implant proves successful in practice. However, it would be desirable to provide an implant that can be handled more easily.
Further implants for the mutual support of spinous processes are described, for example, in EP 1 885 266 B1, US 2009/0264927 A1 and WO 2011/031924 A2.
An object underlying the present invention is to provide an implant of the above type, which can be handled more easily.